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Unions accuse “hypocritical” SNP of accepting lies over blacklisting

Trade unionists are this morning protesting outside the office of Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon after SNP-led Dundee City Council last week voted to name blacklister BAM Construction as its preferred bidder for the £45m tender to build Victoria …

Trade unionists are this morning protesting outside the office of Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon after SNP-led Dundee City Council last week voted to name blacklister BAM Construction as its preferred bidder for the £45m tender to build Victoria and Albert (V&A) Museum of Design.

Members of GMB, UCATT and the Blacklist Support Group will join the protest as GMB general secretary Paul Kenny hands over a letter to Nicola Sturgeon asking for her and SNP leader Alex Salmond to intervene and reverse the Dundee decision.

The union is campaigning for BAM and other firms to be excluded from tendering for any further public sector contracts in Scotland until they compensate the 582 workers in Scotland that they blacklisted. 21 blacklisted workers were from Dundee.

GMB national officer Justin Bowden said: “This shameful decision by a shoddy alliance between nationalists and Tories in Dundee must be reversed. When it came to action not words the SNP in Dundee has been found out. They had to choose sides and last Monday in Dundee once again they choose the wrong one.

“BAM claims it is years since they blacklisted anyone and when they did they did not blacklist anyone from Scotland. This is nonsense. We know they placed at least 34 names on the blacklist. These workers continued to be blacklisted until the blacklist was shut down in 2009.

“Just last year BAM were at the centre of the blacklisting scandal on Cross Rail project in London.

BAM has yet to issue an apology and they haven’t paid a single penny in compensation. They are before the High Court again in November as workers seek compensation. Their lawyers in the High Court at the last hearing denied that what they were engaged in was blacklisting.

“The SNP has accepted complete lies from BAM. This is the true face of the SNP, the hypocritical betrayal of blacklisted Scottish workers. All the words from them about no more public work for blacklisters till they compensate their victims are just words. We are bitterly disappointed.”